The document summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of the author's research and planning for a video game project. Some key strengths included researching details in other games that inspired ideas for backgrounds and menus, creating mind maps and proposals to solidify planning, and completing animation within a tight timeline. Weaknesses included not researching enough relevant games with scrolling backgrounds and being too ambitious in planning tasks to complete within limited timeframes. The author felt time management and technical skills in pixel art and animation could be improved with more time for the project.

1. Evaluation
Joy Buck

2. Research
One strength of my research is that, in the research PowerPoint, I look closely at
all the detail that is maybe not considered by players of these games. For
example, in my research on Monaco GP, I had considered all the detail that was in
this animation such as the background. The background was one of the most
detailed parts of the game as I think it looks cool. Some one probably drew it and
it must have taken a long time, to draw these corn fields and caves. This is what
helped my product and made me inspired to make my own background in my
game. I have also drawn a cave and even an ocean like they have. I was also
considered the detail in the animation, such as the car going into the ocean and
the lights on the cars when they travel into the cave. I was inspired to make my
own version of them.
Another strength of my research was in my experiments when I had experimented
with the background in the bouncy ball game. This taught me how to use the
tween tool. I used this for my scrolling background even though it was scrolling
horizontally and not vertically like my video game product.

3. Research
Another strength in my research is when I researched Mario Kart 64. I looked at all
the selection menus and opening of the game. I had researched the way the
colours brag focus to the players choices. This made me want to try this technique
out too. This didn’t turn out great for me though as it meant that I needed more
time. This was okay though as I found another way to bring the focus towards the
players decisions. This was also another technique that Mario Kart 64 did too.
They added a see though screen so that you could still see the other screen, but
they changed it to a more boring colour (e.g. grey) so that you could be focused
on choosing your car or how hard the game was going to be. I think that this is a
great technique to use.
One Weakness of my research is that I haven’t researched enough games that
include scrolling backgrounds. I had included Monaco GP and Grand Theft Auto
yet only one of those games was relevant to the idea that I had in my head. Grand
Theft Auto was not at all what I wanted to create, and I think even though I
wanted to include this just because of the background, I just wanted to stick to
this idea of a vertically scrolling background. This did not contribute to my product
at all and I could have searched more in depth for games that I was looking for.

4. Research
Another weakness of my research was in my experiments with sound. In
particular, the sound website, Beep Box. I had no experience with this website
at all and needed more practice to get the hang of things. In my experiment,
on this program, I should have known how to work the bottom number as I
did not know, and the same tune was just repeating itself four times! I only
just learnt, during recording my sound effects, that these numbers at the
bottom is what line of music that you're on. If I would have known better
about this website, I think that I could have done better with the sound
effects and would have been on the advanced settings right now.
Overall, I think that my research was good. It could have been improved with
a little more time to research more games that were more relevant to the
idea that I wanted.

5. Planning
One strength of my planning was having three potential ideas, set out as mind
maps. This was a strength because it helped me to figure out which idea I
liked best to make into a game. These mind maps helped me to create one
final idea, mind map. This final mind map set an idea in my head, which I
stuck to and created a final product out of. This was great as it opened so
many work opportunities for me, such as creating lots of animation and
sound in this project. This helped me as it made me advance in skill for future
projects.
Another strength of my planning was the Proposal. This was the ultimate final
idea that I proposed to the audience. I think, even though, I didn’t follow all
of this plan, I still followed most of it. The plan was structured into sections
and (like the mind map) the section on, what your product was about, helped
me. It told me exactly what I wanted to make. For me, this was great as I am a
forgetful person at times and need to be organized. This is why these many
plans help me.

6. Planning
The final strength of my planning was the pre-production PowerPoint. This
PowerPoint was for going into more detail about my game and included things
such as colour scheme, screen layouts and planning what sound effects I was
going to create. Creating a colour scheme helped me a lot because I had a limited
colour scheme that I could stick to. I was never stuck on which colour to use. I
used this in my pixel art in mainly the background and opening screens. The
screen layouts helped me to create identical versions in product. Even though, I
may not have used all of the layouts due to problems, I was still able to follow
most of the layouts. This worked out well for me as I was once again organised.
Finally planning out what audio I was going to use was very helpful as I could keep
going back to the pre-production PowerPoint and checking off what I need to
create next. I had fun creating sound and this was a quicker process as I did not
need to think of what to write next. This made me very organized and helped me
create my product quicker.
I had also planned for contingencies. This made me very organized and happy as I
had planned what to do if anything goes wrong at home or at college.

7. Planning
However, there were some weaknesses to my planning. One weakness to my planning was
when writing my mind maps, I had one idea, to complete a car game, but I wanted to see
what other ideas I could produce, in case that main idea did not work. The problem was
that it was harder to expand on these side ideas because I could not think of anything else. I
ended up researching into what I could create as I did not have two side ideas as back ups.
Even though I produced those ideas, I don’t think they were nowhere as detailed as my
main idea. This was a weakness as I had nothing much to fall back on. Thankfully, it did not
effect my final product. I could have improved this by putting a little bit more time into it
and creating three detailed mind maps instead of one.
Another weakness is when I am planning, I am too ambitious and want to do a lot of work
in little time. I plan myself to do lots of work and this is a weakness because when I spend a
lot of time on something, like a background it takes time up from other things that I could
be doing, like the rest of my production log. This, I am meant to write by the side of my
production, and I must leave it for homework as I need the resources at college in order to
get big volumes of production done. I just think that I need to be a little bit more realistic in
what I am going to create in the future, and I need to consider the time limits of projects
too. Other wise, my products will not be in on time and this could effect my grade at the
end of the year.
For example, I had planned to complete the game with 8 characters and did not have time
to complete the game with animals.

8. Planning
Overall, in my planning I am very organized and have things planned if I forget
what I am doing. I could improve on things such as being too ambitious and
working to supply a good amount of work in a small amount of time.

9. Time Management
In the time that I had, yes, I think I did well to manage my time. I even had
less than other people because I took a holiday in the second week of
production. This meant I had one week of production to get my product
completed. In this week all my animation was completed and then I ran out of
time. I even stayed an extra hour and a half on the Tuesday to get at least this
the animation done. I was happy that I completed this. After the production
weeks were over, I wasn’t done with my product. I still needed to create the
sound effects and music to my game. I was planning to do this on the Monday
of that week, but it took longer. It took the Tuesday as well. By this time, I was
also behind on my production log too, which I could not do in class as I
needed to do my work with the resources at college. I took screenshots
though. On the final day of production, I used the day to complete the whole
video in Premier Pro and place on YouTube and my blog. I also finished my
production log within this day too. Which only leaves me to complete what
this week was planned for.

10. Time Management
The evaluation. I am writing this the Wednesday night and I will finish this on
the Thursday!
From the start of my project, I think that my project was on time, with my
planning and research. Its as soon as production comes, I just get carried
away with work and cannot stop. I think my product could defiantly improve
with extra time. As, I missed a week, I could improve my video game by
putting characters in it and an other option screen (if I did have extra time). I
was a bit too ambitious for one week of production. I could do with another
week of extra time to make my product the best that it can be.

11. Technical Qualities
In my product, there are some strong technical qualities. This
includes detailed pixel art and animation quality. However,
these can be weaknesses in some parts of my product.
One strong technical quality in my video game is the pixel art.
In particular, parts of the scrolling background and objects
within the race. Some parts of my scrolling background are
technically pleasing to my audience. This parts include, the
detail of the water, the bridge and the rainbow ramps that have
cars jump off them. The detail within the water is technically
pleasing to my audience as I have taken different tones with in
the same blue colour to create waves. I have also added white,
this could be viewed as sea foam, which also portrays the look
of a wave. This is seen as strong pixel art as you can tell what it
is meant to be, and the audience do too.

12. Technical Qualities
The bridge is another technically pleasing quality to the audience. You can
tell what it is from how detailed I have made it. The bridge is made up of
five colours. Light brown (wood), Dark brown (wooden joiners), Mid–
brown (wood), Black (rope holders) and Orange (rope). The amount of
detail in this bridge is fantastic as the audience knows what it is straight
away.
Some other technically pleasing qualities to the audience is the objects in
my game. This includes the rainbow ramps, rocks and the trees. The
rainbow ramps are technically pleasing to my audience because of their
bright coloured pop to the player. They are also in an arrow shape, which
from a top view perspective, gives the car the look of going up the ramp. I
think that this perfect as this was the effect I was trying to pull off. The
rocks and trees are technically pleasing to my audience because of their
shady appearance. On the rocks that lay outside of the cave have a mix of
dark and light grey colours. This gives them a ridged effect and gives some
extra texture to the rock. I have done this same technique with the trees
that lay before the finish line. These trees have a mix of greens, mainly mid
tones. I have added lines of dark green to give them a sort of three-
dimensional effect. You can also tell what it is because of the small brown
tree bark at the bottom of the tree. It is harder to draw objects from a top
eagle view, but I think I did a great job of portraying these objects.

13. Technical Qualities
I am going to be comparing work to the 1970’s arcade game, Monaco GPTM . I
am comparing my work to this arcade game because I had used this game for
my research and my product is so similar to this game.
Firstly, as I explained before, I had put a lot of detail into the pixel art of my
scrolling background. This game has a scrolling background just like my game.
Monaco GP’s background is ridiculously detailed. It must have taken a long
time to make this game. One similar part of their game to mine is the water.
There is a lot of detail in the water. The similar parts is the colours, they have
also used a variety of blues and whites. I have used these colours to portray
the look of waves. They have too but differently, they have added these
whites as ripples in the water as well as waves.
After this, I had noticed we (me and Monaco GP) have similar bridges. They
are not similar in colour but have the same level detail. Monaco GP’s bridge
has detail around the sides and bottom supports. My bridge has rope and
connectors. We have equal amounts of detail with our bridges.

14. Technical Qualities
Monaco GP’s product.
My product.

15. Technical Qualities
However, there are some weaknesses in the technical
quality of my pixel art. This being the look of the mud
near the end and the look of the cave. The mud near the
end of the course looks basic. I think that I could have put
a little bit more effort into this. I could have added more
grass and tree trunks as well as having this mud. It
doesn’t look as pleasing to the audience as I would have
liked. As well as this, I could have put more effort into the
cave. I really like the rocks around the outside of the cave
but it’s the inside that don’t please me. I could have
placed more rocks around the floor of the cave. Like the
outer cave.
Doing these things would have improved my game more.

16. Technical Qualities
The difference is when I don’t put in more effort. Comparing my work to
Monaco GP’s is easy when my work is great but then I don’t put the effort in,
it changes my mood towards my work. The two pixel art pieces I wasn’t so
happy with in my scrolling art background were easy to spot as they were
different in to my pieces I had worked hard on. The pieces I had worked hard
on took longer, these did not.
Whist, there were similar quality pixel art to Monaco GP’s, the two I didn’t
like were different to the quality of Monaco GP. There’s were so much more
advanced. The cave part that is in the game, Monaco GP is much more
detailed. It has the detailed red, side barriers and the distinct yellow line on
the tarmac road. My work was only two colours put together! I could have
placed a few rocks in the cave to give more detail.

17. Technical Qualities
Monaco GP’s product.
My Product.

18. Technical Qualities
Now, that I have spoken about pixel art technical quality. I
will speak about the technical qualities of my animation.
This includes my opening scenes and my car movement.
These have strengths and weaknesses.
One strength of my opening scenes are in the leaf and
lightning animation. There smooth parts to this animation
as well as not so smooth. One smooth part is when the leaf
floats down to the ground. This is a technically pleasing
element to the audience as this two-frame animation is so
smooth moving. It sways side to side. I love this animation
so much as the leaf pixel art is great too. The wideness of
the leaf helps the leaf to smoothly drift to the ground.
Although, this animation as not complex at all, it is very
smooth. Being a simple animation helps to make it smooth.

19. Technical Qualities
A weakness of my opening leaf scene is the thunder bolt frames that come
right after the leaf. It is the fact that the green background turns black once
the thunder bolt comes. The audience might think that this was a mistake as
there are no transitions in between colours. Like I had done in between my
logo starting to my game and the start of the opening leaf scene, there was a
four frame animation were the white turned to green. I could have improved
this by making a quicker colour merge animation. The animation that I had
finished is not smooth and is not complex. I could have done better.

20. Technical Qualities
Another strength to my animation is my selection screens. These screens are
technically pleasing to my audience as they ,firstly, go over my title screen
with a see though screen. This meaning, you still can see the title, but on top
you can see the option screen. I did this as a colour fade animation. This
meant the colour got stronger with every frame. I did this animation in two
frames as it gave a clear transition of an option screen coming up. This made
the animation smooth but was not very complex to achieve.

21. Technical Qualities
A similar product that the animation in the open
screen like mine is Mario Kart 64. Mario Kart’s
opening screen is similar to mine as it has the
opening screen on every selection screen. This
animation transforms between colours like
mine, but the difference is it transforms
between colours on each option screen. My
product’s colour stay the same. I would say that
Mario kart’s animation is about the same quality
of smoothness but theirs is a little more
complex compared to mine.

22. Technical Qualities
Another similarity in animation between my work and Mario Kart is the fact
that they have a flashing start button animation and I do too. This is on the
start screen. This animation was easy to complete but you had to think if the
start button layer was going to switch off or on. This was a simple process. I
think that my work is under the quality to theirs as theirs is smaller and more
pixelated and mine is big text squashed into the screen.
Their product. Mine.

23. Technical Qualities
The final strong technical quality, is the cars in the race. Compared to other
animations this one was a little more complex. However, this could be the
final weak technical quality too as some points in the race the cars just jump
up the screen when they are not supposed to (they are supposed to be
placed in a similar position to the last frame). Some of the animations weren’t
smooth at all. This was down to me being tired and not noticing which car
was where. I had one hundred and fifty-two frames to go though!
I will finally compare this to Monaco GP as it is a more similar game to mine.
Their car animations are like mine. This could include the car traveling into
the water. There are some differences, such as, my cars are less smooth
traveling compared to theirs.

24. Technical Qualities
The car traveling into the water is similar to mine as it involves three frames.
The car on the water, the car splash and then another car splash. This was
what mine involved and it was a simple animation to get my head around.
Monaco GP’s animation looked like a three part animation too and was
smooth. The only difference with ours is that Monaco GP’s animation is a lot
smoother than mine.
Monaco’s Mine.

25. Aural Qualities
In my product, I had various strengths and weaknesses when It came to the aural
qualities of my work. These included the amounts of music and complexity, the
amounts of sound effects and quality. I had no dialogue because my product
didn’t require it.
Firstly, my product included lots pieces of music, which ranged from the logo
music to the restart music. This was a strength for me because I feel like the
audience will not get sick of the same music repeating forever. These pieces of
music were not complex at all as I wanted to make it easier for myself to achieve
completion of this game. This was a weakness for me because if I would have
made the music more complex, such as bigger textured music, I might have gotten
a higher grade.
Secondly, my product included more sound effects than music because of all the
button pressing, car accidents and placement changes. This was a strength for me
because the texture of my video game sounds have more than one track playing
at the same time. This made the audience even happier with my product as (for
example) they might have wanted know what place they were in the race, the
sound effect for this helps reinforce that this is there. The quality of my sound
effects were great. I think that they sounded as good as games on the Highstreet.
This was another strength.

26. Aural Qualities
For a comparison of sound in my game, I am going to be comparing my game
with Mario Kart 64’s sounds.
One good aural quality in my game was the continuation of the same
instrument in four different pieces of music. I had used the same synth
instrument though out four pieces of music, it was called the classic house
organ. This organ sounded powerful and positive. This was a strength because
I wanted to carry on the same positive vibe though out the game so that if
this game was real, the audience would want to play the game repetitively.
The positive music is encouraging to player to win the race. In comparison,
Mario Kart’s game music does a similar technique. Though out the race
places, different music plays with the same instruments. They either have a
synth instrument playing or a tambourine. I think that this is a great way to
get audiences coming back to play more of your game.

27. Aural Qualities
One weaker aural quality of my product is the opening scene. The leaf,
lightning bolt scene music was a tricky and more complex tune to create. It
was complex as I need to create this piece of music for a very miniscule
amount of time (4 seconds). As I had explained in the production log, I had
shortened it and felt okay to leave it how it is. I think that it does match the
rest of the game, but I could have made it better. I could have improved this
by going back to the file and editing it to have more of a grumble as I feel like
the grumble of thunder is not obvious enough, and of course trying to make
this file sorter as I sort of got carried away with making it. If I would compare
this music, to Mario kart, I would take the hint to not even have a title
animation as this game does not even have one. This is another way to
improve it, I would throw away the opening scene and roll from the start
screen.

28. Aural Qualities
One strong aural quality is the place hanging sound effect. This is an aurally
pleasing sound effect to the audience because of the sound reminds the audience
to look at what place they are in the race, if they haven’t already. It is also
satisfying to hear as the audience are watching it, it changes and makes the sound
at the same time! It is a very clear, pronounced noise. In comparison, the place
changing noise in Mario Kart Wii (I am comparing it to this game as older games
did not have this noise) is similar. This sound effect is bouncier than mine but has
the same pronounced effect that mine has. I would say that these sound effects
were a similar quality too.
One weak aural quality is the drum roll sound effect. This is not as aurally pleasing
to the audience because the sound of it doesn’t really fit the rest of the game. I
used a non-electric drum for this sound. I got this completely wrong. To improve
it, I should have used an electric drum kit. This would have blended in with the
electrical sounding computer game. I am comparing this to Mario Kart 64’s trill.
This game has done a trill instead of a drum roll. Again this is different to mine
because it sounds more computerised. I should have made a trill like this one. This
would have matched my game more that what I currently have.

29. Aesthetic Qualities
In my opinion, my product looks great. Especially, the creative parts such as parts of the
animation and pixel art.
In the animation, I adored the visuals of the car lights switching on in the stony cave. I think
this was aesthetically pleasing to the audience as they would not have expected lights to
switch on. This adds more detail than expected to the game. I would not improve this at all.
Another part of animation that I like is the manufacturing logo. I like that it fits the eighties
vibe to the game as the strong colours combined make it match. The audience would be
aesthetically pleased by this too as it looks like a puzzle. The pieces of my initials are coming
on to the screen and figuring themselves out. They suddenly fit into place. This is satisfying
to me. This is also a smooth animation and very pleasing to the audience. The final piece of
animation that I like is when cars go up the ramps. The addition of smoke coming from the
back looks more realistic for a video game to the audience. The vibrant coloured arrow
makes the cars seem like they are traveling up the ramp too. These are all strengths of my
product.
However, in my product, I have weaker aesthetic qualities. The one weak quality that I
would say I didn’t like about the animation would be the opening animation. I did not like
the way I had just placed a black background with no transformation of colour. I also did not
notice the green corner at the bottom of the screen. It isn’t noticeable but I don’t like how
I've left it. I could improve these things easily though.

30. Aesthetic Qualities
Lights in the stony cave.
The
manufacturing
logo.
The rainbow ramp.

31. Aesthetic Qualities
Another aesthetically pleasing quality in my product was of course the pixel
art. My favourite pixel art piece was the leaf, that I drew for the opening. I
must say I was very proud of that leaf! I’d added texture on to it, such as the
darker colours resembling shadows and lighter colours resembling the detail.
This pixel art is very aesthetically pleasing to the audience as it looks realistic
for a leaf in a pixelated game. It also looks 3 dimensional, which the audience
would be pleased about. I adore the water, that I drew and talked about
previously. The different tones of blue and additional white makes a good
wave in the water. The audience would be aesthetically pleased by this as
they and I know what it is as it looks realistic.
One piece of pixel art that is weaker and not so aesthetically pleasing to the
audience is the cave. Inside to be exact. I haven’t added much detail, and this
could have been improved with more rocks on the ground like outside of the
cave. I just needed to put more effort into this.

32. Aesthetic Qualities
Leaf pixel art.
Waves underneath the bridge.

33. Audience Appeal
I think that I have appealed to my target audience. My target audience are the people
who are 9+, I even think that younger audiences can play this. I have appealed to my
audience because of the bright colours, pixel art and easiness to setting up the game.
The bright colours appeal to all ages as children tend to like colourful objects. I
thought, why not make these colours into a game. The bright colours are all around
this game, such as the cars, text and background.
The pixel art would appeal to my audience because of the whole game matching the
pixel theme. Everything is pixelated, this looks so cool to my audience as the pixel art
has detail within it to make it look 3 dimensional and look like what it is meant to be.
This includes, the leaf, the rocks (background) and water (background).
Finally, the easiness of setting up the game, would appeal to my audience. The option
screens make it look easy and simple to set up a race. With limited options, a player
could select these with no thought at all. Even old people, who might know limited
amounts of technology, could play this game if they wanted. Therefore, it appeals to
my audience.
In conclusion, I think that my game appeals to my audience completely because of all
these reasons that I have given. You can even play it?

34. Bibliography.
Monaco GP TM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFujJJmW8zc
Mario Kart 64 TM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpGGhdHbeFc
Mario Kart Wii TM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ24U4jl1Hg
These are the games that I compared my product to technically in the
technical qualities part of my evaluation.